In the weeks leading up to the 90th Oscars on Sunday, March 4, we’ll take a look at our rich Academy Award history by sharing from the 20th Century Fox Archives.
“Logan,” which is nominated for Best Writing (Adapted Screenplay) at this year’s Academy Awards, brings the Wolverine trilogy to a close. It’s the first live-action superhero film to be nominated in this category.
For this milestone, we look back on another first: Fox Studios film “7th Heaven” won the first ever award for Best Writing (Adaptation) at the inaugural Academy Award ceremony, which honored films from 1927 and 1928. The event was a private dinner held on May 16, 1929, at the Roosevelt Hotel in Hollywood.
“7th Heaven” is a silent romantic drama about a young girl named Diane who falls in love with Chico, a street cleaner, against the backdrop of World War I. Writer Benjamin Glazer adapted the screenplay from Austin Strong’s popular stage play of the same name.
The film was nominated for five Academy Awards and took home three; in addition to the Writing win, Janet Gaynor won for her portrayal of Diane and Frank Borzage won the award for Best Directing in a Dramatic Picture. The film was added to the United States National Film Registry in 1995.
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The Fox Archives is mandated to collect, catalog, preserve and make accessible the following assets of the 20th Century Fox studios: props, set decoration, photographs, art department and publicity materials from our film and television productions, and from the 20th Century Fox studio itself. We work primarily with internal Fox groups but also from time to time with outside organizations such as the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry.
